SA Gold production drops 4,9%
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BUSINESS DAY ONLINE AND REUTERS
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Published:
2010/01/14 11:55:54 AM
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South African gold output fell 4,9% in volume terms and total mineral production dropped 1,6% in November compared with the same month in the previous year, official data showed on Thursday.
Production of non-gold minerals declined 1,0%, Statistics South Africa said on its website www.statssa.gov.za.
But total mineral sales in value are up at current prices for the three months ended October 2009 reflected an increase of 5,2% compared with the previous three months.
The increase of 5,2% (R2 820,0 million) was mainly due to increases of 14,2% (contributing 3,2 percentage points or R1 777,7 million) in the sales value of PGMs and 5,9% (contributing 1,3 percentage points or R681,7 million) in the sales value of gold.
But gold production actually DROPPED.
The major contributors to this decrease of 28,8%, year-on-year, were PGMs (contributing -10,4 percentage points or -R8 553,7 million), coal (contributing -9,1 percentage points or -R7 460,9 million), manganese ore (contributing -5,9 percentage points or -R4 821,1 million) and other non-metallic minerals (contributing -3,5 percentage points or -R2 929,8 million).